Bypass pumps are put into medical use in instances where a patient requires circulatory support. For example, bypass pumps are widely used in heart surgery to support blood flow while the surgeon repairs heart chambers, heart valves, coronary vessels and so forth. Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is a common example of such surgery.
During a typical bypass surgical procedure, cannulas/catheters inserted into the patient's venous and arterial circulations are connected via tubing sets to an oxygenator and pump console. The pump console is typically based upon a roller-type pump. Unfortunately, roller type pumps suffer from a number of disadvantages, for example: (a) the squeezing of the tubing in the roller causes hemolysis, which is detrimental to the patient, (b) setup and sterilization of the complex pump-tubing-oxygenator system, and particularly of the roller-type pump, is time-consuming and expensive, typically involving specialized operating room perfusionist staff, (c) roller pump consoles are big, occupying a large amount of space in an already crowded operating room, (d) the priming volume of roller-pump systems is large; (e) priming with saline causes hemodilution and anemia, while priming with blood involves the risks that are attendant with transfusion, and (f) unlike the heart, roller pumps deliver a pulseless flow.
Many or the above and other disadvantages of the prior art are addressed by the bypass pumps of the present invention.